Marine pollution is impacting the health and survival of marine animals

Runoff – After a rainstorm, a river on the Meso-American coast discharges sediment and nutrient-laden water (fertilizer and other possible contaminents) to the Caribbean sea. [Photo: Malik Naumann, Marine Photobank] Almost 80% of marine pollution comes from land-based activities worldwide: industry, agriculture, or domestic.

For years, people have been treating the oceans like giant garbage dumps. They have assumed that the oceans are so large that all pollutants would be diluted to safe levels and not harm the ecosystem. In reality they have not disappeared and some toxic man-made chemicals have even become more concentrated as they have entered the food chain.

Birds have played a major role in creating awareness of pollution problems. For example, populations of bald eagles were decimated following World War II, when DDT was widely used as a pesticide.

DDT washed into nearby waterways, where aquatic plants and fish absorbed it. Bald eagles and other predatory birds such as Ospreys, Peregrine Falcons, and Pelicans, in turn, were poisoned with DDT when they ate the contaminated fish and the DDT and its relative toxins bioaccumulated in their fatty tissues. The chemical interfered with the ability of the birds to produce strong eggshells. As a result, their eggs had shells so thin that they often broke during incubation or otherwise failed to hatch. With the banning of DDT in the 1970s and 1980s, Bald Eagle and other predatory bird populations have recovered significantly.

MIDWAY A Message from the Gyre

MIDWAY, a Message from the Gyre is a short film which provides a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the North Pacific Gyre, providing a multi-layered metaphor for our times. Photographer Chris Jordan.

Impacts of Plastic Debris

This pup was entangled in fishing line when he was rescued, courtesy marine mammal centre. Click image to learn more about how plastic debris is impacting life in our oceans.

Impacts of Toxic Waste

This sludge-covered Common Dolphin was trapped at low tide in canal that was polluted with toxic waste from industry. It died before it could return to the ocean at high tide. Click image to learn more about how toxic waste is polluting our oceans and waterways.

Impacts of Man-made Noise

More than 100 whales and dolphins died after beaching themselves in Australia. The mass beaching has been linked to seismic testing, which is a method of searching for offshore oil and gas. Impacts include temporary and permanent hearing loss, abandonment of habitat, disruption of mating and feeding, and even beach strandings and death. Click image to learn more about noise pollution.

Impacts of Overfishing

Hammerhead shark definned alive for its fins and thrown overboard to helplessly sink to the ocean floor to slowly die. Click image to learn more about Sharf Finning and other Unsustainable Fishing Practices that are resulting in Overfishing of our oceans.

Impacts of Climate Change

Because of melting sea ice in the Arctic due to climate change, adult polar bears and cubs have drowned when they’ve been forced to cross vast expanses of open ocean that exceed their strong swimming capacity. Click image to learn more about how Climate Change is threatening life in our oceans and on land.

The Importance of our Oceasn

Phytoplankton - the foundation of the oceanic food chain. Image courtesy of the NOAA MESA Project. Seasonal phytoplankton blooms account for over half the photosynthesis and subsequent atmospheric oxygen production on Earth. It’s hard to believe, but we owe every breath we take to a biological product of marine animals mostly invisible to the naked eye. Click image to learn more about why our oceans are so important.

"It is amazing the rapid way with which we are ending our oceans, as if we had the task with a time limit to finish with all the good things that the oceans give us." . . . Mora Reyes Ramo del Rocío, student, San Patricio Melaque high school, Mexico